The next rocket escalation will be wrongly legitimized by events like this Gaza Flotilla just as the second intifada full of suicide bombings on public buses was legitimized by a mere visit to the Jewish Temple Mount by Ariel Sharon in 2000.
Sitting in Sderot today, a working day, is quieter than Shabbat. No one is walking around outside as an entire population fears bombardment by now more publicly legitimized rockets. According to Sderot's Security office, no schoolchildren were allowed outside today as the city fears imminent attack.
Weapons on the Mavi Mamara Flotilla Ship (Photo: IDF Spokesperson)
This Gaza Flotilla event is not at all what is seems. According to an Israeli Channel 2 reporter found with the Israeli soldiers, the attackers commandeered the soldiers' weapons, while live firing at Israeli soldiers shot their own people on the boat, and threw the weapons overboard. These supposed humanitarian activists shot their own people to hurt Israel in the international arena, just as Hamas blew up their own captive people in Gaza buildings during Operation Cast Lead.
Weapons on the Mavi Mamara Flotilla Ship (Photo: IDF Spokesperson)
There was nothing peaceful about these internationals as they did not adhere to multiple warnings and continued breaking international law, crossing into Israeli waters, then immediately attacking Israeli soldiers. The video footage shows these supposed humanitarian activists stab the soldiers multiple times as they board the ship.
Sailing on the seas the day before, the Israel Foreign Ministry and Palestinian Media Watch reported the internationals chanting "Khaybar Khaybar ya yahud, Jaish Muhammad saya'ud," meaning "Jews, remember Khyabar, the army of Mohammed is returning." These so-called "peace activists" were referencing the early seventh century event when Mohammed and his followers massacred and expelled the Jewish people in Khaybar, which is located in what is today Saudi Arabia.
Additionally, the total amount of humanitarian materials on the entire convoy of ships was 10,000 tons, which is far less than the average of materials going into the Gaza Strip through Israel every week for the past year and a half.
However, the world is drawn to believe the simplistic headline of innocent people dead on an international peace activist boat thereby bastardizing Israel to an insurmountable degree. The world does not see these radicals for who they are as they had no intention whatsoever of helping the people of Gaza. It is perplexing how far these false liberals who support radical Islam in the Gaza Strip will go to hurt Israel in this media war. If only the international media would go as far to objectively report the reality of these instances. Instead they rush to print a media stunt that was intentionally created by the same propaganda professionals who created a more than 4-year uprising that claimed the lives of thousands on both sides of the conflict.
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Brad Hirschfield: Mourning, Not Politicizing, Gaza Flotilla's Dead and Wounded
What matters today, at least in any conversation which claims to be driven by spiritual or religious sensibilities, is the sadness at the loss of life and continued suffering on both sides of this conflict.
Ahmed Rehab: Israel Gaza Attack: Do Actions of the 'Jewish State' Represent Jewish Values?
Israel's failure is not a failure of Jewish values. If anything, it's a failure to apply Jewish values.
This author acknowledges the soldiers brought firearms onboard. Where I live, unauthorized intrusion onto my property with a weapon is cause for self defense. So what was prevailing law on those waters?
It's murky and subjective depending who you ask, but Israel brought many more deadly weapons to the conflict than the hunting knives, kitchen knives or broomsticks seen in the photos. Let's be evenhanded.
Personally, I think it was wrongheaded to land soldiers on the boat without authorization and with weapons. It is also hypocritical, immoral and subversive for Israel to withhold videos of them shooting passengers which we all know they have. If we are to autopsy what went wrong here, we must be able to see how the rules of engagement were followed by ALL.
It's evident there were hundreds of legitimate humanitarians onboard, a few activists who welcomed "martyrdom" for the cause of Gaza's freedom and dozens more who may have acted on defensive impulse once the armed soldiers dropped from the sky. The flotilla people were therefore not bringing a cohesive message, but I'd say Israel boarding the ship with firearms was more an act of aggression than ignoring Israel's controversial blockade.
Let's now hold responsible the "hotheads" from both sides so we can encourage transparency to keep future violence to a minimum in settling the dispute of how to clothe and feed impoverished Palestinians without allowing arms through.
Consider how the world responded to Syria's massacre of civilians in Hama http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hama_massacre
Then there's the Saudi deployment of phosphorous bombs http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=111524§ionid=351020206
So far as I can tell, none of these incidents resulted in any investigations, and of course no Leftist/Progressive condemnations of the perpetrators.
socks, eyedrops, pencils, and other such "dangerous" weapons ?
They are all very useful against machine guns you know...
Why didn't the "humanitarians" go through normal channels to distribute their "aid"?
"not only is Israel -- which seized ships in international waters and killed civilians -- being portrayed as the Real Victim, but the Real Criminals are those on the ship.
But doesn't the victim of a crime usually want media coverage of what the criminal did?
How odd for the victim in this case to take such extreme steps to ensure that the world cannot hear from the witnesses."
glenn greenwald
" mere visit by Sharon in 2000 " that provoked massive demonstrations. It was a
CLEAR attempt to inflame and stir things up, all of Israel knew this, and
many Jews protested this aggressive action.
Protest to the media, to Congress, about this attack. Rick Sanchez on CNN right now
is showing the IDF film and accepting it, while we know it may well be doctored.
Even if the Peace Ship tried to protect themselves with bars they have
the right of self defense, this was a brutal attack.
Why are we still getting hours on the oil spill when it is a long term problem
and there is no real news, when this ruthless attack gets less media time?
Do you really think the public is this dumb? Showing us a staged picture? I guess putting a nuke among those knives was probably going to far huh?
More Israeli PR trying to justify these horrible events.
What does Israel fear from media coverage?
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/06/01/israel/index.html
Witnesses cast doubt on Israel's convoy raid
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/middle_east/10208027.stm027.stm
You're talking about a group of ships... of course there are going to be knives. Especially with kitchens- and even if there aren't- you need knives if you're at sea from cutting food, to cutting ropes, You need metal on hand for pipe repairs if needed. If you're out in the middle of nowhere, you only have yourself to rely on.
When one of the sheet lines on the rented caravan ended up fraying so badly the sail wouldn't drop between islands- it was a dangerous situation. If we didn't have certain items at hand, it could have had a really bad outcome for us- and that was just between islands.
Something like they were doing, it's better to have items on hand that you don't need, than need what you don't have. Especially since if you watch the video of them trying to get permission to land at Cyprus, and even said they may have to make repairs, and were turned away. Because of being relief workers for Gaza, they were on their own. Nothing in that pile of stuff jumps out as being abnormal for being with a group of ships. As others have said, I would have expected more knives. Most of those are kitchen knives, and one is a sharpener like I got with my knife set here at home.
“I’m calling to voice my displeasure with President Obama’s failure to condemn The Memorial Day Massacre.
I am also extremely disappointed by the veto of President Obama’s representative of the UN Security Council’s condemnation of Israel’s Memorial Day Massacre upon the Gaza Peace Flotilla.
”
WH number: 202-456-1111
Use your speed dial, because you will get a busy signal for about 10 rings and tyhen you will be on hold for about 5 minutes.
a staffer, it will help someday...
Negotiations instead of confrontations.
Negotiations instead of confrontations.
do you see how easy it is?
Your signifyin' monkey diatribes are redundant and infinitely boring.
Cousin, you might try holding two simultaneous thoughts: a flourishing Israel AND full human rights for Palestinians.